Wednesday, November 30, 2005

GREECE 2005 (continued)

One of the exports of Naxos is marble. This marble quarry seemed like a piece of abstract mega-art, carved out of the side of the mountain.


This is an unfinished statue that has been laying near another marble quarry on Naxos since the 7th century BC. It is about 35 feet long, and apparently it cracked while it was being carved. The sculptor just left it and no one has bothered to move it since. We see so many sculptures from the golden age of Greece, but how often do we get to see failed attempts? To me, this sculpture was more interesting than many of the finished ones.


And here is one of my favorite shots of the famed Santorini sunset. The colors never get as fiery and wild as they do in more polluted atmospheres; sunsets here are more subdued, but very peaceful. One can see vauge, misty outlines of neighboring islands in the distance, the calm sea below, and the Santorini "skyline" hugging the cliffs. It feels like a Greek myth.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

GREEK ISLANDS, SUMMER 2005

Just a few shots from the beautiful Greek isles from this summer. The two seascapes are from Santorini, a small volcanic island most famous for its sunsets and its wine (there is almost no rainfall, I learned; the grape vines get nearly all of their water from the nightly dew).


The interior mountain landscape is on Naxos, a larger, more functional island. I know what you're thinking -- is that a "functional" road? Indeed, we drove around for hours on roads like this one, snaking back and forth between mountains, without really going very far as the crow flies. It was beautiful, though, and thrilling (God bless my dad and his nads of steel for navigating our teeny stickshift 6-person "minibus" through this landscape).


I say "functional" because Naxos is actually capable of sustaining itself without tourism -- the inhabitants even recently voted down a planned airport on the island to curb the tourist influx.

(My family and I visited Greece this summer -- These photos are from our digi album, taken by various family members.)

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Briefly about my current goings on:

- I had my audition/interview for the School Of Music at UIUC this past friday. The audition (voice) went well... but the interview with the chair of the composition department was a bit of a slap in the face. The guy looked through my three compositions for a total of 30 seconds, and told me that my music was unsophisticated. Should my portfolio be placed alongside those of last year's applicants, I would probably not get admitted, he told me. He was looking for something more "modern" (ie. experimental, not tonal).

So, right now my future at this school is completely up in the air. There is a "bachelor's of arts in music" degree which is my fall-back option -- I may very well end up doing that, with an emphasis in composition.

- Xtension Chords have a concert this weekend, Nov. 12th. It's called XFEST, and it's a fest because we're bringing in the creme de la creme of a cappella groups from all over the midwest. Visit the website for more details.

- I have not done laundry for a very long time. The situation is bad.